A 3.75 GPA gets you in the door. Then what?

Hi there,

This week's scholarship can provide up to $55,000 per year toward a bachelor's degree.

Yes.

Per year.

But this is also the perfect scholarship to teach you something I wish more families understood:

Being eligible for a scholarship and being a strong fit for a scholarship are two different things.

So before your student spends hours applying, let's look at both.

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation College Scholarship Program

Award: Up to $55,000 per year
Deadline: November 11, 2026
Who: High school seniors completing four years of high school in the U.S., a U.S. territory, or on a U.S. military base and graduating in spring 2027
GPA: Minimum 3.75 cumulative unweighted GPA
Financial need: The Foundation considers applicants with family annual gross income up to $95,000 and conducts a full financial review
Testing: At least one SAT, ACT, AP or IB score is required—but there is no minimum score to apply
College plan: Enroll in an accredited four-year college beginning fall 2027
Application: Common App
Essays: Several short essays are part of the application.

And this isn't only scholarship money.

Cooke Scholars also receive advising around college selection, financial aid and the transition to college. The scholarship is last-dollar funding after institutional aid and can provide as much as $55,000 per year.

Check eligibility + apply on the official Jack Kent Cooke Foundation site →

Here's where I wouldn't stop:

“My student has a 3.8. They're eligible!”

A 3.75 unweighted GPA gets your student through one eligibility requirement.

But look at what Cooke actually considers when selecting Scholars:

Academic ability and achievement.
Unmet financial need.
Persistence.
Leadership.

Within academics, the Foundation also considers things such as course rigor, commitment to learning, intellectual curiosity, honors, and recommendations.

So I'd ask your student:

Where is the evidence of those qualities in your life?

Leadership doesn't have to mean student-body president.

It might be taking initiative at work.

Persistence might show up in a difficult family circumstance.

Intellectual curiosity could be the student who pursued a subject far beyond what was required in class.

Service might happen at church, at home, in a community organization, or while helping care for younger siblings.

Don't just tell the scholarship committee who you are.

Show them where those qualities appear in your life.

For Cooke, I wouldn't look at the 3.75 GPA and stop.

I'd look at the student's academics, financial circumstances, persistence, leadership, and experiences—and compare those with what the Foundation says it values.

That's the difference between collecting scholarship links and developing a scholarship strategy.

Cooke's application includes several short essays.

And this is another part of the scholarship process I've been thinking a lot about.

I taught writing for years, and some of the most useful help I could give a student wasn't rewriting their paper.

It was handing it back with comments in the margins:

This is strong. Keep it.

Tell me more here.

Give me a specific example.

What did this teach you about yourself?

I'm not seeing the connection yet.

Then the student had to go back and make the writing stronger.

That's exactly what I created the College Essay Coach — a tool that comes with your Scholarship Scout AI access pass.

The student writes the draft first.

Then they can submit their draft and receive a Visual Essay Review—teacher-style comments directly on their writing.

It doesn't replace a paragraph.

It doesn't generate a polished essay for them.

It doesn't give them a “better sentence” to copy and paste.

It shows them where their own writing could become stronger.

Then the student decides what to change and does the revision.

Sample Visual Essay Review. The student writes the draft; the pink annotations show the kind of teacher-style feedback the Essay Coach provides. The student decides how to revise.

Their story. Their words. Their revision. Their voice.

Take a look at Scholarship Scout AI →

Not more scholarships. Scholarships you can trust.

Every scholarship can set its own rules about AI.

So even though my Essay Coach provides feedback rather than writing the essay:

Read the scholarship's AI policy before using any AI-based tool, and disclose its use whenever required.

That's part of applying responsibly.

Cooke requires two academic recommendations plus a counselor recommendation.

One academic recommendation must come from an 11th-grade teacher in a core academic subject.

The second can come from another core-subject teacher or professor who has worked with the student at any time since ninth grade.

So if your student looks like a strong fit for this opportunity:

Don't wait until November to ask.

This is something they can do now.

Ask four questions:

Do I meet every eligibility requirement?

Can I show—not just say—academic engagement, persistence, and leadership?

Do I have appropriate recommenders who actually know me?

Am I willing to give the short essays the time they deserve?

If the answers point toward a good fit, then it's time to read the full application carefully and decide whether this scholarship belongs near the top of the student's list.

Angela Robles
College Funding & Essay Coach
The College Cost Hack

I'm going back to the college list.

There's another number colleges publish that can tell you something important about how generous a school may actually be with its financial aid.

And it's not the sticker price.

I'll show you where to find it Saturday.